PORT ST. LUCIE — You could hear the concern across the phone line from St. Louis. Darryl Strawberry’s first agent, Richie Bry — a man Met media relations head Jay Horwitz said truly cared about the Mets’ No. 1 pick in 1980 — was on the other line, speaking about what should’ve been.

“He could’ve been a Hall of Famer,” said the 66-year-old Bry, who met Strawberry almost exactly 20 years ago.

When a person’s life and career turn the direction that Strawberry’s has — his latest problem being a one-year ban from the majors after testing positive for cocaine — the people who have been an integral part of their lives generally say, “I could’ve done this better. I should’ve done this.” Not Bry.

“There was nothing else we could’ve done,” said Bry.

Strawberry as the No. 1 pick out of Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles picked Bry as his agent. But he let Bry go toward the end of his Mets career, just before he signed the big-money contract with the Dodgers.

“My ego would like to say that I could’ve been [the difference,] but I don’t know,” Bry said. “I hope I would’ve.”